Julie King

With 30 years’ experience, Julie King practices law with the highest standards of ethics and professionalism. She handles a wide variety of business and estate planning matters including contracts, employment, corporation/LLC/partnership formation, wills and trusts, pet trusts, trademarks, copyrights, landlord tenant, creditor’s rights, annual meeting minutes and corporate records, mergers and acquisitions, and employee training. She served as in-house counsel to major international corporations, including Toshiba America, where she worked for 15 years. She understands businesses in a way many lawyers do not simply because she has experienced the day-to-day interactions first-hand. See the difference a trained in-house counsel can make in your business. Call today!

Practice Areas

Business Law

Estate Planning

Trademarks

Additional Practice Areas

Form Corporations & LLCs

Business Transactions & Contracts

Landlord Tenant (Representing Landlords)

Employment Law Counseling (Representing Employers)

Fees

Free Consultation

Credit Cards Accepted

Rates, Retainers and Additional Information Pierce King, P.C. bills hourly or charges a flat fee, depending on the type of matter. On occasion, Pierce King may enter into an alternative fee arrangement to accommodate clients in special circumstances.

Jurisdictions Admitted to Practice

California

Since 1987

Languages

English: Spoken, Written

Professional Experience

Assistant General Counsel

Toshiba America

Current

Julie was an in-house counsel for Toshiba for 15 years and handled a wide variety of matters for the corporation. She helped the Human Resources Dept. with employment matters and policy drafting, the Sales Dept. with contracts, the Finance Dept. with guaranties, and anyone else in the company who needed assistance in any area of law. She would be honored to do the same for you. Call today!

A: The answer is it depends. If the person who owns the product and product name claims trademark rights to the product name and your name is substantially likely to cause confusion in consumers' minds as to who produced the product, then you would be infringing on the other person's trademark rights. For example, if you sold shoes with a "swoosh" similar to Nike's, but not EXACTLY the same as Nike's, the legal question would be whether the person who buys your shoes is likely to think they actually manufactured by Nike. If it is likely that people would think it is a Nike product, then you would be infringing on Nike's rights.
The other question is whether you are authorized to sell the other person's products in the first place. In some instances, you don't need a license to sell someone else's products. For example, selling property you own at a garage sale is perfectly fine. But, in other instances, you would be violating the law by selling someone else's property. For example, if you took a movie and intentionally changed a few things to try to make it your own, then sold it as something new. I generally say it is like borrowing someone else's bike, putting a ribbon on the handle bars, then selling the bike AS IF it was your own. I hope this helps!

A: There are a lot of different types of contracts and each one contains different terms. Is it a master services agreement? A joint development agreement? An employment agreement? Without knowing the type of contract and the terms both sides agreed to, a lawyer cannot advise you. There are just too many options.
I tell people all the time that entering into critical business contracts — whether domestic or international — without legal oversight will cost them a lot more money than if they had simply hired a lawyer in the first place. This is just an observation after 30 years of seeing what happens in situations where critical contracts were written by lay people vs lawyers.
If your contract is foundational to your business, you should hire a lawyer who can add terms to protect your business.

A: Many lawyers with experience handling business formation issues, such as myself, offer free initial consultations. We are not allowed to respond to direct requests such as yours, but we can say that you may contact whomever you wish! Justia is a wonderful way to find someone. Best wishes!
Julie P. King, Esq.
PIERCE KING, P.C.
Southern California: (949) 689-2012
Central and Northern California: (831) 275-1002
Julie@PierceKingLaw.com